Ancient Egypt for KidsSquare Sails

Traveling North on the Nile: The ancient Egyptians used the
current in the Nile River to travel south to north easily. The Nile River flows south to north, and ends at the Mediterranean Sea.
Add steering oars, and suddenly travel south to north was even
easier.

Traveling South on the Nile: It was not as easy to
travel on the Nile from north to south. Fighting the current with
oars took great strength. One day, a clever ancient Egyptian
noticed that the winds mostly blew north to south. He invented a square sail
to catch the wind. The sail was probably made out of linen. It was attached to a pole that acted as a mast. The pole was attached to a boat.
Since the Nile is pretty straight and mostly calm, the ancient
Egyptians did not need fancy sails of different shapes to catch
the wind. They just needed to catch it. The square sail worked
very well.

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics use a picture of a boat with
its sails down to signify traveling north, because to travel
north, they used the current and oars. A picture of a boat with
its sails up signify traveling south.

Barks: Traveling by boat was so common and normal to the ancient
Egyptians that they even had their Sun God travel around by
boat. When a boat was used by an ancient Egyptian god, the boat
was called a bark.

Trade: Boats, although common, were not used that much to
travel beyond the Nile River. Unlike the ancient Greeks who
traveled happily all over the Mediterranean Sea, when ancient
Egyptians traders entered the Mediterranean, they stayed close
to the coastline wherever they went.